: : : . . . Discovering Plato's Atlantis . . . : : :

Gods once righteously divided the land among themselves by drawing lots.
1. Plato:
  In the days of old the gods had the whole earth distributed among them by allotment. There was no quarrelling;^C)
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  Pure is Dilmun land. Pure is Sumer -- and you are the ones to whom it is allotted.^E)
  
  The fact that the division of the earth among gods was made righteously by drawing lots is evidenced by another Akkadian myth "Inúma ilú awílum":
  
  These are the ones who seized power.
  The gods cast lots and divided (the Cosmos):
  [Anu] went up to [heaven]
  [Enlil had] the earth as his subject; [the lock,]
  the snare of the sea [was given]
  to Enki the wise. (translated by Tikva Frymer-Kensky)

Poseidon was allotted the island of Atlantis. Enki obtained the island of Dilmun.
1. Plato:
  And Poseidon, receiving for his lot the island of Atlantis,^C)
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  
  He (Enki) laid her down
  all alone in Dilmun,
  and the place where Enki had lain down with his spouse,
  that place was still virginal,
  that place was still pristine.^C)

Gods created man to fill their needs, to make him do the work for them and to control him directly:
1. Plato:
  Gods They all ( the gods) of them by just apportionment obtained what they wanted, and peopled their own districts; and when they had peopled them they tended us, their nurselings and possessions, as shepherds tend their flocks, excepting only that they did not use blows or bodily force, as shepherds do, but governed us like pilots from the stern of the vessel, which is an easy way of guiding animals, holding our souls by the rudder of persuasion according to their own pleasure;-thus did they guide all mortal creatures.C) ^E)
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  In this composition, Enki not only founded a town but his descendants-gods became the very monarchs of the historical lands of Dilmun and Magan. Sumerians also believed that gods created and "cultivated" the mankind to satisfy their needs, as stated, for example, in the different versions of the myth"Inúma ilú awílum"
  
  In those versions Enki reveals his plan for creating the human race.
  "While [Nintu the birth-goddess] is present, let the birth-goddess create the offspring, let man bear the labor-basket of the gods."
  They called the goddess and asked [her], the midwife of the gods, wise Mami: "
  
  ou are the birthgoddess,
  creatress of man. Create lullu-man,
  let him bear the yoke.
  Let him bear the yoke
  the work of Enlil;
  let man carry the labor-basket of the gods." (translated by Tikva Frymer-Kensky)

Genealogical links between gods described by Plato are identical with the traditions in Mesopotamia:
1. Plato:
  Cleito lived on a mountain in the middle of the island: "In this mountain there dwelt one of the earth born primeval men of that country, whose name was Evenor, and he had a wife named Leucippe, and they had an only daughter who was called Cleito. The maiden had already reached womanhood, when her father and mother died; Poseidon fell in love with her and had intercourse with her,"^C)
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  Translation of the Sumerian name Ninhursanga means "Lady of the Mountains", i.e., a lady dwelling on a mountain. The parents of Ninhursanga, according to the Old Babylonian tradition god Apsú and goddess Tiámat, really died only after Ninhursanga or Damkina became adult. God Apsu was killed by Enki. She-dragon Tiamat was killed by Marduk, son of Enki and Ninchursanga. Apsu, as a personification of a subterranean freshwater ocean, lived - according to the Sumerian ideas - under the ground. He was coming from the ground or, more precisely, from the underground, to the surface in the form of freshwater springs and marshes.

In both compositions, god (Poseidon, Enki) makes love with a goddess (Cleito, Ninhursanga) on the island yet before coming of the people, the town, water, and before the island becomes fertile.

There was no water on the island. Therefore, Poseidon brought up two springs from the ground. Similarly Enki twice filled the dykes of canals with water.

Plato:
Poseidon "bringing up two springs of water from beneath the earth, one of warm water and the other of cold, and making every variety of food to spring up abundantly from the soil.." ^C)

Enki a Ninhursanga:
When he (Enki) was filling with water a second time,
he filled the dykes with water,
he filled the canals with water,
he filled the fallows with water. E152-158)

Poseidon and Cleito gave birth to five couples of male Gemini, of which in only two couples were the lands they were to rule specified. Atlas became the monarch of Atlantis and Gadeiros became the monarch of the area between the limits of the island and the Pillars of Heracles. Besides others, Enki and Ninhursanga gave birth to eight Gemini. Each of the eight gods was a counterpart to one of the eight plants which also arose from the semen of Enki extracted by Ninhursanga from the womb of Enki's great-granddaughter during her incestuous connection with Enki. In the finale of the composition, five male gods are listed, who were born from the connection between Enki and Ninhursanga or who married a goddess produced from this connection. Again, only two of these gods became rulers of specific lands. Ensag became the lord of Dilmun. God Nintula (goddess Ninsikila is also sometimes reported) became the monarch of Magan.
1. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  "(Ninhursanga) said: "For the little ones to whom I have given birth may rewards not be lacking.
  Ab-u shall become king of the grasses,
  Ninsikila shall become lord of Magan,
  Ningiriudu shall marry Ninazu,
  Ninkasi shall be what satisfies the heart,
  Nazi shall marry Nindara,
  Azimua shall marry Ninjiczida,
  Ninti shall become the lady of the month,
  and Ensag shall become lord of Dilmun."^E)

Much goods from foreign countries were imported to Dilmun and to Atlantis:
1. Plato:
  "For because of the greatness of their empire many things were brought to them from foreign countries, and the island itself provided most of what was required by them for the uses of life.^C)
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  May Dilmun become an emporium on the quay for the Land.
  Possible insertion point for additional lines in a ms. from Ur:
  May the land of Tukric hand over to you gold from Harali, lapis lazuli and ....... May the land of Meluha load precious desirable cornelian, mec wood of Magan and the best abba wood into large ships for you. May the land of Marhaci yield you precious stones, topazes. May the land of Magan offer you strong, powerful copper, dolerite, u stone and cumin stone. May the Sea-land offer you its own ebony wood, ...... of a king. May the 'Tent'-lands offer you fine multicoloured wools. May the land of Elam hand over to you choice wools, its tribute. May the manor of Urim, the royal throne dais, the city ......, load up into large ships for you sesame, august raiment, and fine cloth. May the wide sea yield you its wealth. ^E49-49P)

Each of the two islands became fertile land by effort of the gods, with large resources of timber, with a capital and a port founded by the gods.
1. Plato:
  There was an abundance of wood for carpenter's work, and sufficient maintenance for tame and wild animals.^C)
  Also whatever fragrant things there now are in the earth, whether roots, or herbage, or woods, or essences which distil from fruit and flower, grew and thrived in that land; also the fruit which admits of cultivation, both the dry sort, which is given us for nourishment and any other which we use for food - we call them all by the common name pulse, and the fruits having a hard rind, affording drinks and meats and ointments, and good store of chestnuts and the like, which furnish pleasure and amusement, and are fruits which spoil with keeping, and the pleasant kinds of dessert, with which we console ourselves after dinner, when we are tired of eating - all these that sacred island which then beheld the light of the sun, brought forth fair and wondrous and in infinite abundance. With such blessings the earth freely furnished them; meanwhile they went on constructing their temples and palaces and harbours and docks. ^C)
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  The city's dwellings are good dwellings. Dilmun's dwellings are good dwellings. Its grains are little grains, its dates are big dates, its harvests are triple ......, its wood is ...... wood.^E49Q-49V) Dilmun drank water aplenty from them. Her pools of salt water indeed became pools of fresh water. Her fields, glebe and furrows indeed produced grain for her. Her city indeed became an emporium on the quay for the Land. Dilmun indeed became an emporium on the quay for the Land. At that moment, on that day, and under that sun, so it indeed happened. ^E55-62)

Both literary pieces describe identical agricultural landscapes - canals and ditches distributing water to agricultural plants, rivers, marshes or reed growths.
1. Plato:
  Žeň měli dvakrát do roka, v zimě pomocí dešťové vody s nebes, v létě pak zavádějíce na pole z průkopu vodu, kterou rodí země. ^K)
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  (Enki) podruhé vodou vše plnil,
  strouhy vodou plnil,
  kanály vodou plnil,
  místa pustá vodou plnil.
  Zahradník, jenž jen prach znal, teď raduje se,
  Enkiho objímá:
  "Kdo jsi ty . . . (že zahrada se. zelená) ?"^E153)

Both of the two islands were located in a monsoon region. In the mythEnki and Ninhursanga Sumerians succeeded in very precise characterization of the principle on which monsoon rains are formed. The sun causes water evaporation in cooler ocean in monsoon regions: Utu, the God of the Sun, is said to suck freshwater from the ground with his mouth (upward water movement as in evaporation) in this myth.
Seasonal monsoons, containing much vapour, blow from the sea from the area of low pressure to the centre of warmer continent with high pressure, thus equalizing the pressure between the sea and the land. Utu also brings water in his mouth from the temple ofNanna the God of the Moon, to Dilmun (horizontal water movement from the sea to the continent mediated by monsoon). Accentuation of the temple ofNanna the God of the Moon, as the source of water is neither pointless. It is an obvious innuendo at Utu's sucking of water from the ocean. According to the Sumerian mythology, the city of Ur, became the centre of the lunar cult of god Nanna, also hosting the Nanna's sanctuary Egishshirgal. Fifty columns of its foundations were reaching to "seven oceans" (engur imin -e; Sjöberg 1969,23).¹¹⁴⁾ Nanna was symbolized by horizontally lying crescent associated with the image of a boat.
Above the continent, vapour condenses and produces severe monsoonal torrential rains: in the myth, Enki was filling the dykes of canals with water from his phallus, plunging his phallus into the reedbeds (water movement downwards, as during heavy rain). After the monsoonal torrential rains, the first to come out are the leaves of reed growing in ground depressions filled with water after torrential rains, thus preserving enough moisture.
1. Plato:
  Explanation why the island of Atlantis was localized to the monsoon region is given on page 9 of this study.
2. Enki a Ninhursanga:
  At that moment, on that day, and under that sun,
  when Utu stepped up into heaven, from the standing vessels (?), on Ezen's (?) shore,
  from Nanna's radiant high temple,
  from the mouth of the waters running underground,
  fresh waters ran out of the ground for her. ^E50-54).
  ....
  The waters rose up from it into her great basins.
  Her city drank water aplenty from them.
  Dilmun drank water aplenty from them.
  Her pools of salt water indeed became pools of fresh water.
  Her fields, glebe and furrows indeed produced grain for her.
  Her city indeed became an emporium on the quay for the Land.^E55-62)
  All alone the wise one, toward Nintud, the country's mother,
  the wise one, toward Nintud, the country's mother,
  was digging his phallus into the dykes,
  , plunging his phallus into the reedbeds. ^E63-68)

According to Plato, gods were establishing sanctuaries themselves, which is very unusual in the concept of Egyptian and Greek theology: I have before remarked in speaking of the allotments of the gods, that they distributed the whole earth into portions differing in extent, and made for themselves temples and instituted sacrifices.^C)
In parallel, gods built a sanctuary for themselves in the Babylonian theological myth on the creation of the world "Enuma elish":
When universal law was set up and the gods allotted their calling, then the Annunnaki, the erstwhile fallen, opened their mouths to speak to Marduk:
'Now that you have freed us and remitted our labor how shall we make a return for this? Let us build a temple and call it
THE-INN-OF-REST-BY-NIGHT
'There we will sleep at the season of the year, at the Great Festival when we from the Assembly; we will build alters for him, we will build the Parakku, the Sanctuary.'
When Marduk heard this his face shone like broad day:
'Tall Babel Tower, it shall be built as you desire; bricks shall be set in molds and you shall name it Parakku, the Sanctuary.' ^{(Translated by N. K. Sandars.)}

According to Plato, there were two crops a year on the island of Atlantis. In the myth Enki and NinhursangaEnki achieved two crops of agricultural plants by irrigation in Dilmun in a short time interval. The same myth further says the following about Dilmun: Its grains are little grains, its dates are big dates, its harvests are triple ......, its wood is ...... wood.^E49Q-49V) The Plato's narration about Atlantis, unlike the Sumerian myth Enki and Ninhursanga continues, or rather was supposed to continue, with the description of the war between Atlantis and the whole population of the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, within the limits of Heracles. The war could have taken place between ca. 3260 B.C. and 1850 B.C., i.e., between the end of the Late Uruk period and the coming of the first Babylonian dynasty. The basis used by Plato for the description of the conflict were Akkadian legends about Sargon of Akkad (2334-2279 B.C.) who - based on later literary tradition recorded especially in texts "Shar tamchäri", The King of the Battles in English (Mid Bybylonian and Late Assyrian periods), "Sargon the Conqueror" (Old Babylonian period) and "The Legend of Sargon of Akkade"(Late Babylonian and Late Assyrian periods) - united Sumer, conquered Crete, Cyprus, Dilmun, and became the monarch of a vast empire stretching from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea. Sargon, also designated as the "monarch of four points of compass", established the oldest world power based on centralized political system run by fifty loyal governors (ensi) and state-controlled merchants. An integral part of the system was the regular army of 5400 men, multiplied by many times in numbers when needed - extended by units constituted upon summons (the present conscription). The armament of the Sargon's army included military carts with movable poles and stirrup hitch, pulled by asses or mules. The crew consisted of a reinsman and a warrior with spears. Figures of Sumerian military carts are recorded on the "war side" of the standard of Ur from grave No. 779 dating to the early dynasty period of 2600-2500 B.C. (see Plate 1, p. 137 A)). This period is characterized by the first historical record of another type of military operations - naval landing force of Akkadian king Manishtusu in the Persian Gulf, which means that neither the use of navy for military purposes can be excluded. ¹¹⁹⁾ It can be concluded that the Akkadian army consisted of heavy infantry (spearmen), light infantry (archers and slingers), military carts (with a crew of two men), sappers and boats for the transport of infantry.
Plato also provided a description of the Atlantean army in the Critias dialogue. It consisted, based on conscription, of military carts with two-manned crews (a reinsman and a warrior), heavy-armoured soldiers, light-armoured soldiers, archers, slingers, spearmen and the navy with sailors. In addition, Plato also reported cavalry.
As shown on Map No. 6 on p. 80 A), the delimited boundaries of the empire of Sargon surprisingly coincide with the description of the area governed by the Atlantean kings. The data given in Timaeus, and especially in Critias, may refer to the area east of Tyrrhenia (the present Italy), as drawn on Map No. 6. If so, Atlantis would control, much like Sargon of Akkad according to the later Mesopotamian literary tradition, the eastern part of the Mediterranean as far as to Egypt, the coast of Asia Minor, Cyprus, Crete and maybe even a part of Libya and the Mediterranean Sea as far west as to the Sicily and the Tyrrhenian Sea. Yet before the expansion to the Mediterranean, Sargon penetrated to the Persian Gulf. According to the ancient Greeks, the Persian Gulf was a part of the outer sea called the Atlantic Sea. From the Atlantic Sea, the troops of Sargon really "haughtily rolled to the whole of Europe and Asia", as stated by Plato. As suggested by the Mesopotamian sources, the power of Sargon definitely did not reach as far as to Egypt or Greece. Similarly, these two countries were occupied neither by the Atlanteans, according to Plato. Sargon of Akkad, although ruling Sumer, was of Semitic origin. Since the very early times, Akkadians assimilated with the Sumerians. If we accept the Old Sumerian mythological idea that Sumerians are children of gods, the words of Plato can be directly applied to Sargon and his Akkadian dynasty; these words described, in rather defamatory terms, the moral values of the Atlanteans before their attack on the Mediterranean countries:but when the divine portion began to fade away, and became diluted too often and too much with the mortal admixture, and the human nature got the upper hand, they then, being unable to bear their fortune, behaved unseemly, and to him who had an eye to see grew visibly debased, for they were losing the fairest of their precious gifts; but to those who had no eye to see the true happiness, they appeared glorious and blessed at the very time when they were full of avarice and unrighteous power.^C)
The Atlantis of Plato finally, only after being defeated in war, sunk into the sea during strong earthquakes and especially floodings. The mythological motif of floodings was very popular in Mesopotamia and was directly linked with the island of Dilmun again. Sumerian myth about the flood is recorded on a tablet fragment from the Old Babylonian period. The principal hero during the flood was the religious king named Ziusudra - saviour of the animals and human race who weathered in a big boat a flood lasting seven days and nights sent by the gods. Later, he was given eternal life by gods An and Enlil and the gods allowed him to live on the island of Dilmun. This myth is an obvious precursor of myth Atrahasis and the 11th tablet "the Epic of Gilgamesh." ¹²²⁾The story of the flood in the Epic of Gilgamesh shows, inter alia, a whole range of elements identical with the biblical story of the flood given in the book of Genesis in the Old Testament.

In fact, Plato was not describing the seat town of the Atlantean kings but, maybe unwittingly, re-narrated a very old idea Sumerian of the universe adopted from Egyptian sources, distorted by oral presentation and by transcription. Sumerians imagined the universe as shown in Fig. 1 on p. 83. ^A)
Nevertheless, the figure published by S.N. Kramer in his book"From the Tablets of Sumer" could be only hardly drawn by the Egyptians in the time of the Solon's stay in Sais. Ancient Egyptians followed a certain elementary canon for official paintings. Two-dimensional view was essential, while the composition, understanding, or expression of space was considered less important. The expression of space was sometimes aided by the arrangement of registers (horizontal belts) one above another, or, by illustrating the plan view.¹²⁷⁾ The Sumerian idea of the universe recorded in plan view by an Egyptian painter, if the individual spheres of the universe were piled one atop another, is shown in Figs. 2-8 on p. 84-86.^A)

Diagram 2. Below is a representation of the universe according to the Sumerians. The Underworld (a-ra-li) was encompassed by seven rings or layers made of stonewalls and protected by a systém of watchtowers. The palace of Ereskigal was situated within the Underworld itself.

Diag. 3. A freshwater ocean; "abzu", was located above the Underworld

Diag.4. A land (ki), or the Earth as we know it, inhabited by people was found on the next layer above this freshwater ocean. According to various Mesopotamian sources; the Sumerians believed this land to be a flat circular disk ¹²⁸⁾ or a round loaf-shaped entity floating in a saltwater ocean that lay at what we would sea -level. There was a wall around the ocean that protected the land from the ocean waves. ¹²⁹⁾

Diag.5. The Earth is encompassed by a saltwater ocean (a) upon which it floats.

Diag.6. Heaven (an) was situated above the Earth. The Sumerians believed that Heaven was: " a hollow area enclosed from top to bottom by a solid entity resembling arches in appearance". The Sumerians referred to tin as "the metal of Heaven" or "Heaven's metal", we can , therefore, assume that they considered this solid entity to be made of tin. They believed that there was another element that lay between Heaven and Earth which they called Lil ¹³⁰⁾

Diag.7. The blue canopy of the sky was interpreted as Heaven's ocean and, above this entity, was the seat of the Gods.

Diag.8. The Sun rose in the East from behind two mountains and then set in the West behind two more identical peaks. The way to the Underworld led from between these western peaks.¹³¹⁾

A closer look at diag.8 shows the Sumerian interpretation of the universe in diagram form; starting at the bottom level of the universe (The Underworld viz diag.1) all the way upto the highest level of the universe (Heaven). The resulting Figure 8 (see Fig. 9 on p. 86 ^A))showing the Sumerian cosmology in plan view is practically identical with the plan of the inner part of the capital of Atlantis elaborated by Poseidon and the first Atlantean kings, reconstructed on the basis of the Plato's narration (see Fig. 9 on p. 87 )^A)

Diag.9. The layout of Atlantis.

Regardless of the obvious cosmological undertone of the description of the plan view of the seat town of Atlantean kings, Plato further wrote about the inhabitants of Atlantis in the Critias dialogue:"The stone which was used in the work they quarried from underneath the centre island, and from underneath the zones, on the outer as well as the inner side. One kind was white, another black, and a third red, and as they quarried, they at the same time hollowed out double docks, having roofs formed out of the native rock. Some of their buildings were simple, but in others they put together different stones, varying the colour to please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight." ^C)
A typical feature of the Sumerian temple architecture from the Late Uruk period and the subsequent early Jemdet Nasr period were columns and walls of loam bricks covered by a thick layer of loam plaster, to which thousands of small pegs of baked loam were later embedded. Heads of the 10 cm long pegs, usually black, red, white and yellow in colour, made up a mosaic with geometrical patterns similar to the weave of reed mats. Some of the mosaics were also composed of varicoloured stones embedded in the gypsum plaster. A typical example of such mosaic-like temple is the Eana temple complex in Uruk (layer IVb, IVa; see Plate 3, p. 130 A)). Pegs of baked loam, which were used for mosaic decorations of walls in the Late Uruk period were discovered by archaeologists at Tell Fara in the Nile delta recently.¹⁴⁰⁾The pegs of baked loam or stones precisely fit the description provided in the Critias dialogue for houses put together from stones of different colours. The mosaics in the facings of the temples looked like stone, or were really made of stone. Their manufacturing mostly employed the loam exploited from water canals, as stated by Plato.

Egypt was maintaining very close links with the Ancient Mesopotamia during the whole existence of the Sumerian culture as well as later. The latest investigations of the Egyptologists confirmed the strong influence of the Uruk culture in pre-dynastic Egypt in the Naqada II. period (archaeological site in southern Egypt, on the W bank of the River Nile). The development of the younger Naqada II, phase is usually believed to be associated with migration from western Asia either on dry land across Palestina, or across the Red Sea and then Wadi Hammamat at, crossing the Eastern Desert to the River Nile valley.¹³⁷⁾Rock paintings in wadis stretching across the mountains from the River Nile to the Red Sea, show boats of Mesopotamian shapes ¹³⁸⁾corresponding to the Sumerian vessels illustrated on seals from the Late Uruk period and the subsequent Jemdet Nasr period (ca. 3300-3000 B.C.) Moreover, finds of original seals from the Jemdet Nasr period have been reported from Naqada II¹³⁹⁾ From the Old Kingdom times already, a rare mineral of blue colour - lapis lazuri was imported to Egypt from sites as remote as northern Afghanistan, either across the Middle East or the Red Sea. Long-distance trade must have functioned in a very effective way between Egypt and Mesopotamia.

A single-column tablet found in the Egyptian Tell el-Amarna in 1913 bears some 64 lines of Akkadian text and a colophon saying: "The first tablet of the 'King of the Battle'. The end".¹⁴²⁾ Yet another small fragment of a school tablet found at Tell el Amarna contained possibly also a part of the so-called historical novel "King of the Battle" (shar tamchäri in Akkadian). The single-column tablet from Tell el-Amarna, dating to the 14th century B.C. to the Mid Babylonian period, describes Sargon of Akkad as the King of the Battle with menacing weapons. The find of the two tablets on Sargon confirms the popularity of i dealized Babylonian narrations on heroic acts of Sargon of Akkad in ancient Egyptian culture. Using loam tablets bearing Akkadian cuneiform writing, Egyptian monarchs also communicated diplomatically with the neighbouring state units, especially in the Middle East. From the beginnings of the Middle Kingdom (1994-1797 B.C.) and most probably even earlier, Egyptians disposed of all information on the Sumerian civilisation given in the dialogues of Plato. Besides the legends about Sargon of Akkad, Egyptians were also familiar with the Sumerian mythology and Eridu-based cosmology. This is evidenced by the Narmer Palette of Narmer údajného sjednotitele Egypta the alleged unifier of Egypt, identified by some scientists with Menesthe legendary founder of united Egypt. .The Narmer Palette found by archaeologist J.E. Quibell in Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt in 1897 comes from the times before 3100 B.C. Two giant mythological animals are engraved in the central part of the palette, having long interwoven necks, tied by their necks and watched, or also captured, by two guards (see Fig. 10 on p. 92 A)). The motif of mythological animals is basically identical with the relief engraved on a cylindrical, four centimetres high seal from Late Uruk times found in level IV in Uruk (see Fig. 11 on p. 92 A)).